Hold My Beer

You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other.

Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can't worship God and Money both.

-Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 6: 24 (The Message)

When we hear Jesus talk like this, we take the same attitude that many a man has taken when one of his friends has suggested that a particular course of action is unwise or perhaps impossible: "Hold my beer."  Look, we've all been there, we hear it, we know it's sensible and true, but maybe we've had just enough alcohol, or maybe we just so badly want it not to be so that we're willing to try something highly unadvised. I wish that money wasn't such a strong competitor for my heart and mind.  I am exceedingly privileged in that I have found a path where serving God and the church is also a way to support my family and lead a comfortable life, but I would be lying if I said I didn't wish there was just a little bit more comfort, and a few more dollar signs involved.

It is pernicious, worrying about money.  I would say that there is real wisdom in the vows of poverty that some priests and monastics take, but to tell you the truth those vows simply pass the problem up  the food chain.  Churches, denominations and hierarchies worry every bit as much about money as your average household.  If I'm being honest, personally and in my experience with religious institutions, God loses this battle a good part of the time; thus this verse remains a prophetic word, a thorn in the flesh.

I'm holding on to the barest of hopes that the fact that I can still feel that jab is an indicator of the truth that God has not lost the war.  If I woke up tomorrow and the world had moved into the dream of Star Trek, where money had ceased to be the motivating force behind everything, where individual people and humanity as a whole (if not Ferengi) was free to pursue exploration and discovery, or art, or whatever moved their souls, where technology had replaced the need for anyone to live a life of menial service and allowed everyone to engage in noble and dignified vocation, maybe then I could say that God was really A-1 on my list.

But the thing is, on Star Trek, there is no real allowance for gods.  Sure the Klingons have some spiritual stuff that happens, and the Vulcans have elevated logic to a divine principle, but there is nothing really for the humans.  There is a ship's counselor, there are hairdressers, botanists, expendable red-shirts, engineers and all manner of people in the world, but never a chaplain.  The counselor has supplanted that role as near as I can tell, but it's never about a connection with anything beyond simple emotional processes.  They may have managed to get rid of money, but they also apparently have gotten rid of God.

It occurs to me that duality is a rather necessary feature of our make up, and Star Trek has tried to simply erase the central duality of most of our lives in order to pursue other avenues.  Since I'm in the Sci-Fi wormhole, it bears mentioning that Star Wars is actually entirely centered around a duality.  The Force itself is both light and dark and the adherence to one side or the other is the central drama... except for the fact that Han Solo represents the opinion of most non-Jedi and non-Sith, that the duality is nothing but "hokey religion."

Doctor Who has investigated the complicated relationship between the Doctor and the Master over the course of the series and there is a rather important implication that they actually need each other in some way, shape or form.  The season finale that just aired on Sunday night dangled the possibility, the hope, that the Doctor and Missy (the Master's latest and female incarnation) could somehow work together.  But (spoiler alert) the nature of the Master prevents that, and the last male incarnation of the Master shoots Missy in the back, precisely at the point where she had chosen to turn towards the Doctor.  This is an interesting commentary on the way that the feminine identity is a necessary corrective to some of the most pathological aspects of maleness. And also how the male ego is willing to self-destruct to avoid it. It only took a Sci-Fi series fifty plus years to bring that into the light, so maybe there is hope.  Here's the Doctor's sales pitch to Missy and the Master, it's pretty good theology:

 “I’m not trying to win. I’m not doing this because I want to beat someone, because I hate someone, or because I want to blame someone. It’s not because it’s fun. God knows it’s not because it’s easy. It’s not even because it works because it hardly ever does. I do what I do because it’s right! Because it’s decent! And above all, it’s kind! It’s just that… Just kind. If I run away today, good people will die. If I stand and fight, some of them might live. Maybe not many, maybe not for long. Hey, you know, maybe there’s no point to any of this at all. But it’s the best I can do. So I’m going to do it. And I’m going to stand here doing it until it kills me. And you’re going to die too! Some day… And how will that be? Have you thought about it? What would you die for? Who I am is where I stand. Where I stand is where I fall.” 

It highlights again, how tricky duality can be, if you are forced to choose between power and vulnerability, most of us would choose power, even after we understand how destructive that choice might be.  That is essentially the choice between God and Money, giving yourself to God means surrendering your control.  Money seems to offer you a way to maintain control, it dangles the dream of being wealthy enough that you can insulate yourself from suffering.  Order offers us the dream that we can be safe from chaos and violence. The Dark Side is seductive, always. God's way by comparison seems rather mundane and yet at the same time difficult.

Jesus demonstrated vulnerability in his life, and it bears noticing that he suffered the consequences of that vulnerability past what most of us would consider the omega point of human experience.  I think the challenge of Christian discipleship is learning to look past the mortally constrained view of power and see that true life exists only in God.  Money, control and power will always dangle enticements and choices out there, they're not going to give up any time soon, and a lot of the time they are going to win.  Hope is belief that they will not win forever.